I also read the comments and as usually, there are trolls claiming that we just need to learn how to manage our money. I get those moronic comments here too, but no longer approve them. I don’t have the time to respond and why should we all have to read those comments and get aggravated?

Some of the trolls are bank employees, others are “normal” people who THINK they are so smart. They “never had a problem” with their bank. That’s usually because they’re too dumb to figure out when they get screwed or they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Can you tell that these morons bother me as much as the banks? 🙂

And since Wells Fargo was mentioned as a better bank,here’s my post about the class action against Wells Fargo for reordering transactions to get maximum NSF fees:

Additionally, I personally documented that Wells Fargo stole THOUSANDS of dollars from a client who made her mortgage payments with cash at the branch. I helped her get some of the money back (the payments she had receipts for), but they would not credit anything else.

Wells Fargo did NOT investigate how this happened or offer any explanation. And one of their employees told me that they couldn’t care less what I publish as they are so huge. Unfortunately he was right:

Currently I’m banking at US Bank and they arrange the deposits and debits so that the deposits go in first. That’s very nice, but they have other problems. I won’t be writing about them because they’d quite likely close my account as Compass BBVA did after they found out about my posts.

I’m excited that the Common Good Bank is now scheduled to open in spring 2012. I’m a founding member and for more info please check the website:

A landmark court ruling on Wells Fargo’s outrageous overdraft scam has the potential to return hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen funds to consumers all over the country. But like many of the banking scandals from the past decade, there’s more to the story than simple bank predation. When banks devised this new program to swindle their own customers, bank regulators did not merely look the other way, they actively encouraged the behavior by writing a new rule approving a practice that courts now believe to be unfair and deceptive. The Wells Fargo case should be viewed as a clear example of why Elizabeth Warren ought to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The overdraft scam that Judge William Alsup slapped down yesterday is not unique to Wells Fargo– every big bank in the country has been doing it for years, and if it’s never happened to you, it’s probably happened to your friends or family. Banks make a lot of money from overdraft fees– $38 billion last year, compared to a combined industry profit of just $12.5 billion. They don’t make that money by accident. Internal company emails and memos from the Wells Fargo case show bankers spending a lot of time figuring out how to maximize the number of overdraft charges they can hit their checking customers with.

One way is by changing the order in which your transactions are processed. Most people think that their checks and debit card purchases are processed in the order that they make them. But that’s not how banks actually do it. Instead, they wait for you to make several purchases, and then process the most expensive purchases first. This method pushes a customer’s balance to zero faster than the honest way that actually reflects buying habits. And the sooner your balance goes to zero, the more overdraft fees the bank can hit you with.

Say you’ve got $80 in your checking account, and you decide to pay some bills and run some errands. You spend $30 on gas and another $20 on your water bill. Later, you head to the grocery store and spend $81—oops!—on groceries. To reasonable people, it looks like you’re going to get hit with an overdraft fee. That last purchase put you over the line. But instead, the banks reorder your transactions, processing the groceries first. Now you’re below zero, and they can charge additional fees for your gas and water bills. Wells Fargo charged up to $39 per overdraft. This one mistake cost you $117.

“The bank’s dominant, indeed sole, motive was to maximize the number of overdrafts and ’squeeze as much as possible’ out of customers who spent more than they had in their accounts,” Alsup wrote in his ruling.

In other lines of business, this kind of scheming is known as “backdating,” and it’s considered “fraud.” But Wells Fargo officials are unlikely to be prosecuted for this outright theft, because they were aided and abetted by the top federal bank regulatory agency, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency. In 2004, the OCC issued an interpretive letter granting formal approval to overdraft backdating.

Thanks to yesterday’s ruling, every dime that Wells Fargo took from its customers with this ridiculous backdating scam will have to be repaid. The company will certainly appeal the verdict, and the court case itself is only a part of the overdraft story. It’s not at all obvious that consumers really want overdraft “protection,” and those that do certainly don’t want to be conned into paying out unnecessary fees. An easy way to prevent this kind of abuse is to notify consumers that a purchase will their account, and require an additional step authorizing the charges—the same way you have to approve ATM fees before banks take your money.

Please read the LONG story of BBVA Compass bank closing my accounts due to my publications in the ABOUT page.

There are some amusing aspects to this documentary.

The Kingman branch manager Mark Huling refused to provide his name and threatened to sue me in small claims court for $5,000 if I publish his name.

Mr. Huling, I’ll accept the waiver of service if you fax your complaint and summons to 571-222-1000. I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing that lawsuit!

However, it’s NOT funny that they apparently filed a false police report and falsely accused me of trespassing.

Fortunately, banks have security video to prove that I cashed their checks and asked for the branch manager’s business card. Mark Huling didn’t allow the teller to give it to me, and when I tried to take a picture of Mr. Huling they all screamed that I can’t take pictures, so I left.

I was NOT trespassing and NOBODY asked me to leave.

So before I find out why they charged a $38 NSF fee while my account never went negative, I’ll try to determine WHO falsely accused me of trespassing and who filled out the bizarre “Warning / Equipment Repair Order” at the Kingman Police Department.

WHO made the decision to close my accounts due to my publications?

Will BBVA Compass close the accounts of all customers who dare to ask questions about their policies?

What does the Federal Reserve Bank in charge of regulating banks have to say about all this?

I can’t wait to get their response to my complaint.

Of course I first have to WRITE the complaint and I’ll give the BBVA Compass legal eagles a few days to review my ABOUT page to ensure everything is accurate.